I'm sorry no one has answered your post in the affirmative. I can't either, but I want to encourage a bit more postings on Eastern religions. I am fascinated by the Buddhist faith, the little that I know about it. Like Christianity, it's core message is beautiful and simple and succinct. But, like other religions, there is the addition of ritual and the myriad stories (especially in Buddhism) that attempt to clarify but only muddy my understanding of the point. My experience with Buddhism is mainly through the writings (quite reverent of Buddhism) of Joseph Campbell, a few slim books, and way too much caffeine-driven-coffeehouse-jibber-jabber.

I keep wishing that I could find a local, in-person forum for discussing faith and spirituality and the experience of the divine, but I have just found Church. Ah, well. I hope this post keeps yours a little closer to the top for a while, and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future!

"Let me see you stripped down to the bone. Let me hear you speaking just for me."

There are three main branches of Buddhism actually - Hiniyana (monastic as practiced in Sri Lanka or Thailand), Mahayana, and then Vajrayana (dubiously taken for 'Tantra'). Tibetan Buddhism is Vajrayana. Like you mention, it's core message is beautiful, simple, and succinct - but probably not the same beautiful succinct message that gets simplified by modern media. most people think of it rather like the "lazy religion" where you simply do good and try not to hurt people. Yes. But I would say the essence is the belief in Bodhichitta, or Buddha nature, within every living thing. Instead of believing in a God separate or outside oneself, we believe every life contains the essence of the divine like a sun shining in the sky and our habitual afflictive emotions and thoughts act as clouds that obscure that sunshine.

There are rituals but if you are fortunate enough to come into contact with a genuine lineage you will see that they are actually part of a very systematic approach to dissipating the clouds and letting the sun shine. My own Lama's lama (teacher's teacher) displayed many miracles when he passed away just two years ago. Up until the Chinese invaded Tibet there were thousands of lama's whose bodies dissolved into rainbow lights upon death, leaving only fingernails and hair behind. This is a sign of their advanced achievments in meditation. i have been to the retreat caves in Nepal where one of our great saints left hand and foot prints in solid rocks to inspire devotion for centuries after his passing.

TIbet was uniquely able to preserve some of the highest instructional teachings. Meditation within TIbetan Buddhism is more than just watching the mind or remaining thoughtless, instead it is a system of habituating the mind to be divine. Many people think that they are in control of their thoughts, but our mind is like a lightbulb, it burns bright in all directs and illuminates things for us. By meditating we train ourselves to focus our thoughts into a single stream so that it becomes instead like a laser and is then strong enough to really break through the illusion of 'subject vs. object' duality.

you know how in quantum physics there are particles that become waves when no one is loking? all matter and energy is like that. our own awareness of reality literally creates it. When the Buddha attained enlightenment (or when the thousands of others who have attained it since through similar methods) he literally transcended the delusion of Ego such that all phenomena appeared no longer as rigid fixed particles, but rather as a flowing wave of possibilities that could be manipulated at will.

It unlocks enormous power, but, beautifully,the only way to attain such a powerful state is to TRULY abandon your clinging to 'self' (not in a scary, nonexisting way, but in a way of truly understanding how connected everyone is and not fundamentally placing yourself higher than others). It is impossible to become like Buddha without Buddha's compassion...

so yeah... not Zen exactly, but just wanted to say that yeah I would love to talk too! I hope more people join this thread...

Quote:

Originally Posted by SweetSilver

(Dead silence!)

I'm sorry no one has answered your post in the affirmative. I can't either, but I want to encourage a bit more postings on Eastern religions. I am fascinated by the Buddhist faith, the little that I know about it. Like Christianity, it's core message is beautiful and simple and succinct. But, like other religions, there is the addition of ritual and the myriad stories (especially in Buddhism) that attempt to clarify but only muddy my understanding of the point. My experience with Buddhism is mainly through the writings (quite reverent of Buddhism) of Joseph Campbell, a few slim books, and way too much caffeine-driven-coffeehouse-jibber-jabber.

I keep wishing that I could find a local, in-person forum for discussing faith and spirituality and the experience of the divine, but I have just found Church. Ah, well. I hope this post keeps yours a little closer to the top for a while, and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future!

We are Jodo Shinshu buddhists. And yes! We are very active in our temple, as well as following Shin tradition in the home. Our two young children have collections of Buddhsit stories, and read them nightly. I think our faith certainly influences our parenting and world view...

Awesome!! Nice to meet you guys. I'm still trying to get into it. I'm studying up as much as I can and am loving it. These are all things I have always felt so to find that i'm not alone in these thoughts is amazing. I'll definitely check out the Buddhist tribe thread. Thanks for telling me about it!

Hi! First time poster here. DW and I are both long time Tibetan Buddhist practitioners (I myself have previously lived in a monastery in India as a monk). Our practice definitely informs the parenting of our DDs (11 and 4 1/2) and DS (2 1/2). It especially informs us of when we are not parenting to our own standards! Glad to see a growing interest on MDC. As the few posts in this thread have already highlighted, the Buddha Dharma is an incredibly rich and layered path, that offers many approaches compatible with all different kinds of individuals. I hope this thread continues and I will check out the Buddhist tribe.

"May all beings have happiness and its causes.

May all beings be free of suffering and its causes.

May all beings never be separated from the happiness that is beyond suffering.

May all beings abide in equanimity, free from the extremes of craving and aversion." --The "Four Immeasurables" Prayer

I'm settling into Buddhism (however slowly) and I find that I am already far more peaceful than before I began. I just looked up some info on Neopaganism and I can definitely see the connection there. I might have to look more into that!